


The Boy Wonders

by ArtemisRae



Series: Alphabet Challenge [18]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - Manga, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-31
Updated: 2009-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The train ride out to Ishbal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my alphabet drabbles challenge, where I've given a prompt for every letter of the alphabet. This prompt was "Zorro".

* * *

_Zorro_  
-noun  
1\. a fictional character created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley

* * *

 

On the train ride out to Ishbal, Major Alex Louis Armstrong sits as patiently as he can manage and stares out the window, wishing desperately he'd thought to bring a magazine. Oh, sure, there are letters in his bag – one from his father, no doubt urging him to live up to the family name, and one from his mother, urging him to be careful as he lives up to the family name, and several others from his sisters and tutors – and while those could pass some time what he's really craving is the box of magazines hiding in a crate under his bed: the pulp magazines, one of his few real indulgences as a child.

Alex had torn through the stories voraciously, but there'd always been one character that had really captured his interest: the man in black, always working to protect the best interests of those born without the same privileges as he.

Tearing through the desert, Alex couldn't help sitting up a little straighter, a little prouder. The weight of his name sits easily on his shoulders, and there's no question in his mind that he's doing the right thing, embracing his call to duty.

He feels a little bit like his great hero, working to protect the best interests of those who need him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> While Zorro himself didn't debut until 1919, the magazine that ran it, All-Story Weekly, originally started running in 1882 and is widely considered the first American pulp magazine. Thus, Alex Louis' hero.


End file.
